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Interviews
THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY BEING WORKED ON. These are all the police interviews in Her Story, in chronological order: 18/06/94 (Interview #1, Hannah) MT-ROOM 3 DI 00524P D101 Hannah: A black coffee thanks, no sugar. I'm sweet enough as it is. D102 Hannah: My name is Hannah. H-A-N-N-A-H. It's a palindrome. It reads the same backwards as forwards. It doesn't work if you mirror it though, it's not quite symmetrical, you get the idea. Sorry! Hannah Smith, I live at 31 Gladstone Street. D103 Hannah: Simon. Simon Smith. He works at Ernst Brothers Glass. They do windows, all kinds of glass. Simon does the more special work. Mirror making, feature windows. Artistic things. Really beautiful things... D104 Hannah: A mobile phone? Yeah... Well, they have one for the glaziers but it's only for work. I can't remember the number. It's in the kitchen. I saw it plugged in to its charging cradle. D105 Hannah: Um... Simon is six foot. Darkish blonde hair. Average build. He's clean shaven. If his beard grows it goes ginger, so he shaves it... I mean not that there's anything wrong with ginger hair! Hannah picks up a photo from her bag under the table, then puts it on the desk. Hannah: Uh... I brought a photo. They said I should bring a photo. This was taken last year on holiday in Rome. It's the best one I have. D106 Hannah: No, he doesn't have any tattoos. He has a scar, down here near his stomach. Past his hip. Cut himself with some glass. That was before... a long time ago. He looks just like the photo. He's not got his glasses on here though. He takes them off for them camera. But he needs them to see properly. You know, when he has to read. A newspaper or a menu in a restaurant. Not books so much. Or watching TV. He likes TV. D107 Hannah: He was wearing, um... a shirt. A blue turtle neck shirt and jeans. He has a watch. It's a really nice one. That was a gift from his boss, Eric. He had his coat. A long gray duffel coat, like Paddington Bear. But he would have taken that with him. It's not in the house. D108 Hannah: So... it was Friday evening. We had an argument. He left... On Saturday he didn't come back. I waited all day. He was supposed to help Eric out with something on the Saturday afternoon, they had a job. He didn't show. So Eric was ringing on the phone. I checked at The Rock, that's our local. They said they'd seen him on the Friday night, but not since. He still wasn't back this morning, which just isn't like him at all. Still not back by dinner time. It's getting dark, again. So I decided to come see you. His parents haven't heard anything either... D109 Hannah: It's The Rockington Arms. The Rock. It's run by a nice couple, Peter and Susan. There's some other regulars there that Simon likes to drink with. And the barmaid they have in sometimes, Helen. Peter said Simon had been in and had a few drinks. D110 Hannah: No. I think he spoke to Helen. She said he was upset about our argument, but I'm not sure what else he said. He likes Helen. He likes blondes. D111 Hannah: It was married couple stuff. A stupid argument, nothing specific. No one knows how to push your buttons than those you're close to... D112 Hannah: No. I mean yes. We have arguments. But... he never runs off. He always comes back, we make up. It's always that way. D113 Hannah: A long time... We got married when I was seventeen. D114 Hannah: Childhood sweethearts? Something like that. Are you married, detective? D115 Hannah: Suicide? No. He would never do anything like that. He's not the kind of person to do anything like that. To hurt himself? No. D116 Hannah: No. Not drugs. I mean, he drinks. But never very much. He goes to the pub and has one or two. Sometimes we go together. He has wine with food. But no he doesn't have any kind of drinking problem. D117 Hannah: Yes. There's a car that we share. A Cavalier. And a van he uses for work. It's owned by Eric, but we look after it. Both of them are there now, parked on the street. I'm not sure about the keys for the van. I can look for you when I get back. D118 Hannah: No. I'm not sure what strange would be, but he hasn't been acting odd. He's been busy at his work, but nothing too stressful. D129 Hannah: Sure. Yes. Of course. If that would help. Will you phone the house to let me know when you want to come around? Then I can make sure I'm there. D120 Hannah: He has a wallet. A huge, silly thing. Leather. Real leather, I think. He packs it full of stuff. Business cards, receipts, lottery tickets. He always carries it in his back pocket. I think that's why he's got a bad back. Offsets the discs. I haven't seen it so he must have it on him. He always takes it out of his back pocket. Before... When he comes in, if he's in the house. D121 Hannah: Yes, that would be in his wallet. It's a Visa. A silver one. He doesn't like to spend money he doesn't have, so he usually pays with cash, but... Eric convinced him to get one. D122 Hannah: Sure. I think. I do all the bills and paperwork and handle all the money stuff so... should be easy for me to find. Do you want them dropped off to you? D123 Hannah: Yes! There's an Amstrad one. No one uses it for very much. There's a printer, so you can write letters on it. Simon sometimes plays games. You know, climb the tower, save the princess. That kind of thing. D124 Hannah: No, he doesn't keep a diary. That's my thing. I've kept one, well, as long as I can remember. Since I was a girl. Helps make sense of my day. When you're forced to put something into words... just gives you perspective. Everyone's on the same page. D125 Hannah: Simon isn't the type to run off or do anything crazy. Someone must have done something to him or there must have been some kind of accident. So what do we do next? D126 Hannah: Yeah, thanks. Please find Simon. I love him so much. Hannah gets up from her chair and leaves the room. 25/06/94 (Interview #2, Hannah) MT-ROOM 3 DI 00524P D201 HANNAH: Could I have a cup of tea? D202 HANNAH: I haven't been into work, I've been... I mean I guess I've just been waiting. Waiting to hear from you. Hear from my husband. D203 HANNAH: Bruise? Oh, yeah. No, it's nothing. I was going through the top cupboard in my kitchen... and the chair slipped and I kind of hit the door with my face. I mean, it hurt like hell. D204 HANNAH: Yeah. I've been round to Doug and Eleanor's and they're very worried. I feel sorry for them. D205 HANNAH: Well, Eric was like an uncle to him. They were pretty close, they spend a lot of time with each other. Especially when they have to go to conferences. Have you met his wife Diane? D206 HANNAH: Diane is really nice. She helps out at the glaziers, organizes the Christmas Party, that sort of thing. They have too kids, really sweet kids. She used to look out for me when I worked there. D207 HANNAH: OK. I'll try my best to remember. D208 HANNAH: Yes. He left after the argument. It was about eight o'clock. D209 HANNAH: Yes, that's my birthday. Not one of the big ones but I guess you can see that. D210 HANNAH: Yeah. I guess. I'm quite a private person and I didn't want to really get into the detail of the argument. D211 HANNAH: It was my birthday, like you said. We were going to have a meal at home. We had our meal. He gave me his present. I guess I didn't like the present. D212 HANNAH: It wasn't the present so much. It was one of these arguments that has been simmering for a while. The present was a mirror. A nice mirror. He'd engraved the glass. The kind of mirror a princess would have in a story. He made it specially for me. D213 : When you've been married for ten years stuff accumulates. We could argue about anything. And he's so nice, that doesn't help. He tries to smooth things over and that just makes it worse. We're both passive aggressive so we normally argue directly about anything. D214 : What about us? D215 Eve: I did? Well, we met when we were seventeen, both working at the glaziers. D216 Eve: Yeah, when I was at school. I worked part time, in the front shop. It was sort of an extended family thing. My dad used to work there, my mom worked there before I was born. I took care of the paperwork, filing, typing out invoices, that kind of thing. It was a good job for a girl back then. I didn't work a till or anything, I was quite shy so I wouldn't have liked to have worked a till. D217 Eve: No. He was as shy as me. I asked, well, I asked a friend to ask him out for me. We had our first date at the Odeon in North End. We went to see Risky Business. I had on my one best dress. Simon paid and bought me a Wispa and I was worried about getting chocolate on my teeth. D218 Eve: I got pregnant. Both our parents had a big pow wow. We weren't even in the room and they decided we should get married. D219 Eve: I guess you could call it that, but we were both, both happy to get married. It was a beautiful wedding. We had our first dance to Come Back and Stay. I'm not sure if that's a good wedding song, but I loved it, I chose it. It was genuinely our first dance. We'd never danced together before. It was probably awful to watch, but I enjoyed it. It felt like it was just me and Simon, for that moment, just the two of us. D220 Eve: We spent the wedding night in a hotel in Brighton. It would have too much to do more, we were saving for the baby. It was wonderful to be in a hotel, away from home, just alone together. Since then, we've always tried to get away for our holiday. D221 Eve: We couldn't afford our own place. Simon dropped out of school, went full time at the glaziers. That was Eric's generosity. We moved in with his mom and dad. They had a spare room for us and the baby, if it came. It was a nice change, time to myself, living there for those months, full of hope. D222 Eve: No. I lost the baby. Had a miscarriage at eight months. We carried on, living at Simon's parents until, well it was only a few months after... D223 Eve: Then my parents died. It was the worst year of my life. The miscarriage and then my parents. D224 Eve: At the time they said it was poison. Food poisoning. I felt so guilty. If I had still been at home, maybe I could have done something. I don't know. D225 Eve: Yes. I inherited it from my parents so it made sense to move back. Me and Simon. Felt like going back to old ways, before the pregnancy. Reminded me of being a girl. The dollhouse in the attic, old things. We didn't sleep in my parent's bedroom for a long time. We decorated it as soon as we moved in, but it was another year before we started sleeping there. D226 Eve: I got a job. To contribute, you know. Doug knew someone and I got a job as a dinner lady at the primary school. They said it didn't matter if I could cook or not, just don't poison the kids! So you see it's always been complicated between me and Simon. It's never just been the two of us. There's always been pressure. D227 Eve: I mean, I don't know. Something must have happened to him on his way home. He could be hurt. I mean why hasn't he phoned? It doesn't... I don't know. D228 Eve: Oh, God. I don't know. I mean... I guess The Rock? You've spoken to everyone there? Someone must have seen where he went. I don't know. So many things could have gone wrong. D229 Eve: No. I mean he was... everyone loves Simon. He was so... nice. To everyone. He loves me. D230 Eve: Fine. I've never had my fingerprints taken before. I once burned my hand in the oven... D231 Eve: OK. Eve stands up from her chair and goes somewhere off-camera. Eve: I've given blood before. Do you need to take that for your records? 27/06/94 (Interview #3, Hannah) D301 Hannah: No, it's OK, the other detective has just gone to get me one. D302 Hannah: Oh, it tastes fine to me. As long as it's black and strong, I'm good. D303 Hannah: Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. The blood... It's probably the worst thing that has happened to me. D304 Hannah: The bruise? Hannah touches her right cheek instead of her left, where Eve's bruise was. Hannah: I have a really fast metabolism so stuff like that just comes and goes. She pauses and listens to an off-screen interviewer. Hannah: I don't know if there's much more that I can tell you that I haven't already told the other policeman. I found the body... I... D305 Hannah: You think it's murder? Clearly it's murder. Well, what can I do to help? D306 Hannah: I was after dinner. I'd spoken to Simon's parents on the phone. I locked up for an early night and I suddenly had this thought... I think it was something his mom had said. She'd been speaking about old stuff. Sad stuff. About when we lived there. About the baby. There's some boxes in the cellar. Nursery stuff. Stuff we never needed and I never had the heart to throw out. I suddenly remembered that when I'd looked down there the week before... those boxes... that pile was in the wrong place. I went cold all over. I went down there with a torch and went straight to the back... and that's when I saw the bin bags. Pulled them open. Saw the body. I screamed and that's when I called the police. D307 Hannah: His body... it didn't look real. His throat... it looked like his throat had been cut. And I didn't see his glasses. He has these thick glasses. Doesn't always wear them. D308 Hannah: No. The whole thing was wrong. The bags. I think they were from our kitchen, you can probably check that. We never go into the cellar. It's just a place we put things we don't need. Dad used to grow mushrooms there. The bags were taped up. I think it was parcel tape. I think it was ours. D309 Hannah: I wasn't in the house. D310 Hannah: I wasn't in the house all of Friday night. After the argument, after Simon left, I left too. I was upset and I wanted to get away. So I took the car. D311 Hannah: I got in the car and I drove. I just kept driving north. Just kept going, just wanted to get away as far as I could. When I finally stopped, I was all the way up in Glasgow. I was so tired, I just had to sleep. D312 Hannah: I left the next day, Saturday. I slept for a few hours in the car and when I woke up I came straight back. Simon wasn't returning my calls and I wanted to try and make up. I got back to the house and Simon wasn't there and I... Hannah stands up, about to vomit. Hannah: Excuse me! Is there a bin? D313 Hannah: Yes, I'm fine. I won't be sick again. This happens some days. I'm pregnant. It's morning sickness. D314 Hannah: No. Well, yes. He found out on my birthday. I told him I was pregnant. D315 Hannah: Yes. It was a shock to him, I mean we never thought it was possible. I don't know what he... I mean... I hadn't decided whether to keep the baby... I wasn't really ready to talk to him about it. D316 Hannah: It was late. Early Saturday morning. D317 Hannah: Yeah. I pulled over and slept in the car. This was just by the side of the road. I was exhausted. D318 Hannah: I think when I drove back it was about eight or something. I got back to the house about three. Three. D319 Hannah: When you suspect someone about murdering their husband? D320 Hannah: OK. So you want to eliminate me as a suspect? D321 Hannah: OK. Sounds weird. I'm not great at making up stories. D322 Hannah looks at a photo given to her on the table. Hannah: OK. There's a girl and she's staring out the window. She's sad? She's trapped. She's here... She's looking out the window because her mother won't let her out. D323 Hannah: It's Rapunzel. The story starts when she's born. Mother Gothel, a witch, takes Rapunzel from her parents and keeps her locked up in this tower. Rapunzel gets pregnant by the prince. Mother Gothel is furious so she cuts off her hair and throws her- Actually, her hair is already short here so that's already happened. She throws her into the wilderness, and Rapunzel is reunited with the prince, who's blind... But she cures him with her tears and so it's a happy ending. Is that too much? D324 Hannah: Sorry. Sorry. The picture, the way it's drawn, it just reminded me of the books we used to read as children. I read those fairy tales over and over, they were so real to me. Rapunzel was my favorite. My brain is just full of it. Are any of these in color? D325 Hannah: Yes. Like a story. A beginning, a middle, and an end. D326 She looks at another photo. Hannah: OK. Well... She has a knife. She's been cooking? I guess she's been cooking him his favorite meal? She's his wife. He's asleep and she doesn't want to wake him. Because he's ill. That's why she's sad. Because he's ill and he might die? It's kind of a sad story so I'm not sure how it ends. D327 She looks at another photo. Hannah: She's crying, I guess. She's sad because she thought she saw her husband with another woman. But it's OK, because she finds out it wasn't her husband, it was his brother. And so it's fine. D328 Hannah looks at another photo. Hannah: OK. She's being chased. They're trying to catch her because... she did something bad. I guess she broke the rules. Or maybe they think she did something bad. Maybe it wasn't her fault. She looks scared, not guilty. Maybe it was mistaken identity. Do they catch her, though? I don't know. D329 Hannah: Did I pass? Sorry I messed it up with all that Rapunzel stuff. Do you need me to do that card again? D330 Hannah: Yes. I read a lot as a child and watched lots of TV. Then, the dollhouse we had, still have, in the attic... It's kind of a fairy castle. We used to play up there and make up our own stories. D331 Hannah: From when I woke up? OK. I woke up. Simon was already up and he made me a birthday breakfast of Eggs Benedict. We both had to go to work, so we saved presents till later. I got to work. Had some birthday cake. The children sang me Happy Birthday. Then I came home. The birthday meal was a takeaway. And Simon gave me his present, which I didn't mind. And after that we talked about the baby. It turned into a big argument. Simon left. I was furious. I wanted to get away as far as I could, get some space to think. So I left... D332 Hannah: Yes. Um, I got to Glasgow. I was exhausted. So I pulled over and I slept in the car. I woke up because a rubbish truck went past. I got some petrol, bought a coffee and a pastry. Tried calling Simon from a pay phone then headed back. D333 Hannah: Let me see. Hannah then uses the map given to her on the table. Hannah: Yes. I drove in here because I remember, well, I went over the river. And then there was a church. There. Yep. And I probably parked, well I remember seeing a street sign called Princes Street. Look, there it is. Yep, so I'm pretty sure it must be this one. There. D334 Hannah looks at an object inside a plastic bag given to her on the table. Hannah: Yeah, that's Simon's watch. It was a gift from Eric. He got it this year. It was a wedding anniversary gift. Steel. It would have been Diane who chose it, she has really nice taste. That time. That must eliminate me? I was in Glasgow then? D336 Hannah: I didn't. I slept in the car. I left about nine that night. I wasn't there. D337 Hannah: No. I don't think so. Glasgow was deserted that early in the morning. D338 Hannah: Ask the hospital. D339 Hannah: When I arrived in Glasgow I was exhausted. The streets were empty. I was driving badly and I hit a taxi. Not a big crash. Just paintwork. The guy was so pissed off because I didn't have a driving license on me. But when I told him I was pregnant, he made sure I got to the hospital so they could check me out. It was fine. The hospital must have details, when I was looked at. There's a scratch on the car. D340 Hannah: That should eliminate me as a suspect? If I was in Glasgow? I can't be in two places at once. D341 Hannah: I thought it made me sound suspicious. It's not a normal thing to do to drive to the other end of the country. I just, I wanted to keep it simple. I know it was stupid to not tell you everything. Saying I spent the night in Glasgow when my husband went missing... I thought it would, you know, distract you from what was important. It's different now. Now he's... D342 Hannah: No. Everyone loved Simon. He's a glazier, he doesn't have much money. I don't know. I don't know. D343 Hannah: God. I don't know. It could be anyone. Maybe someone followed him back from the pub? But why would he let them in? It doesn't make sense. D344 Hannah: Yeah. I had to let myself in. The door locks if it swings too. Yes. I always pull it shut and then lock the bigger lock with the key. D345 Hannah: Um... No. No, I don't think it was. I turned the key but it was already unlocked. D346 Hannah: No. They were shut. Most of the windows are really hard to open anyway. It's stifling in summer. They were painted over by my dad. He could have left the door open, accidentally? There's a cat flap in the back door. D347 Hannah: No. No cat. My parents had a cat, before they died. Called Domino. It was this little black thing with white dots. We never did anything about the cat flap, but... if you were thin, you could maybe squeeze through it? D348 Hannah: I think so. I mean, to get into our garden, you'd have to climb through other gardens. All the gardens back onto each other, so you'd have to climb over one... two, three gardens to get to ours. I mean did anyone see anything? Did anyone see anyone come and go? An intruder? D349 Hannah: When will the police let me back in the house? They let me take a bag of clothes with me, but... D350 Hannah: The mirror? I can't remember. I put it somewhere safe... Upstairs I think. I haven't looked at it since. D351 Hannah: Simon's parents offered to put me up, but I didn't think it would be a good idea. It would be too sad. Not right now. I'm staying at a friend's.